Zrenjanin
Zrenjanin is a city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 105,722 inhabitants. The old name for Zrenjanin is Veliki Bečkerek or Nagybecskerek as it was known under Austria-Hungary up until 1918. After World War I and the liberation of Veliki Bečkerek the new name of the city was Petrovgrad, in honor of His Majesty King Peter I the Great Liberator, the King of Serbia and the King of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Zrenjanin is the second largest city in the Serbian part of the Banat geographical region, and the 4th largest city in Vojvodina. The city was designated European City of Sport 2021.
Name
Over the course of its history, the city has undergone several name changes. Under Habsburg administration, it was referred to as Großbetschkerek in German, Bečkerek or Veliki Bečkerek in Serbian and Nagybecskerek in Hungarian. In 1935, as part of Yugoslavia, it was renamed to Petrovgrad in honor of king Peter I of Serbia.During the German occupation of Serbia in World War Two from 1941 to 1944, it was called Betschkerek or Gross-Betschkerek in official German documents. In 1946, it was renamed Zrenjanin after Yugoslav Partisan Žarko Zrenjanin who was a victim of the occupying forces.
In Romanian it is known as Becicherecul Mare or Zrenianin, and in Slovak as Zreňanin.
History
Prehistory
Prehistory can be divided into the PalaeolithicOld Stone Age and the NeolithicNew Stone Age. In Zrenjanin's regions no archaeological sites of the Palaeolithic have been found. The only exception was the discovery of a mammoth's head and other bones found on the banks of Tisa River near Novi Bečej in 1952.The region had already been inhabited in the early Neolithic period about 5000 years BC. The most important archaeological site from this period is the so-called Krstić tumulus, located near Mužlja, about away from Zrenjanin where ceramics, with ornaments were found. Beside the brewery ground, coloured fine ceramics, and ornaments from the Starčevo culture were discovered. The middle Neolithic appeared in our area as Vinča and Potisje culture, in the down course of the Tisa River. The influence of two parallel cultures flew through it at the same time. The Iron Age has not been enough explored yet. A few regions with some archaeological materials from the Iron Age have been found: in the residential area Šumica a tip of a spear was found and near the oil factory, and pieces of ceramics from the Bronze Age were also discovered.
The area was settled by many native tribes, but also by many newcomer tribes: the Illyrians, the Celts, the Goths, the Geths, the Sarmatian and Jazghs. At the end of the third century and towards the middle of the fourth century, in the area of Zrenjanin and its surroundings, the Sarmatian tribe Roxolani appeared. From this period, a Sarmatian's graveyard has been found in a city residential district, near the railroad bridge. Finally in the necropolis, not far from Aradac, “Mečka”, more than 120 graves, which date from the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century, were excavated in 1952.
Middle Ages
The first historical records mentioning Zrenjanin date from the 14th century, the time when Charles I, King of Hungary and Croatia, used to visit Banat and spend time in his capital Timișoara. Near today's Zrenjanin a coin was found with the inscription "Charles I". Many noblemen came with the King, including the powerful Imre Becsei. The areas where Becsei settled down were named for him, “Bechereki” and “Beche”. The oldest written records of Bečkerek date from Budim Capitulum's document of collecting the Pope's tens taxes in 1326, 1331 and 1332. Judging by the size of the taxes, Bečkerek of the 1330s was an average village. The first settlers were the landless Hungarian peasants. There were the Serbs in Banat, too. During the reign of Louis I of Hungary, more Serbs migrated to the area from the south, and with them many Orthodox priests.After the Turkish victory at the battle of Nicopolis the Hungarian King Sigismund was considering defending the territory settled by the Serbs, and he is known to have visited Bečkerek on September 30, 1398. The town was granted to Stefan Lazarević at the end of the 1403. The despot became the vassal of the Hungarian King and was granted administrative control of Bečkerek and the title of the Great Head of the Torontál County.
Ottoman period
The Hungarian King Ferdinand appointed friar Djordje Martinović, a commander of his forces, to defend the town from the Ottomans. Hungary was attacked by 80,000 Ottoman soldiers under the command of Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. On 15 September 1551, the siege of the town Bečej was raised and the town was taken after four days. On 24 September, the Bečkerek fortress was besieged. Many people left town earlier and with few defenders the town couldn't be defended and those eighty, who left surrendered the next day. Malković was appointed the lord of Bečkerek. After the Ottomans had taken Timișoara in 1552, Banat became a special province, the Temeşvar Eyalet, which was made up of several sanjaks, including the Sanjak of Beçkerek.During Ottoman occupation, the sanjak had a military administration. Due to good behaviour of the rayah, the inhabitants were exempt from war taxes. During the 165 years of Ottoman rule, Bečkerek consisted of two separate settlements: the settlement of Bečkerek and the village of Gradnulica. The town was divided into two parts, a Turkish and a Serbian. The Turkish part was fenced and closed, while the Serbian one was open. On the main square there was a large mosque built and inside the fortress there was a little one. There was a Turkish bath, and around it there were about twenty stores. Gradnulica was a disorderly village, whose centre was approximately on the crossroad of the present streets Sindjelićeva and Djurdjevska. Prior to Ottoman occupation, the citizens were Serbs and Hungarians. At the end of the 18th century, there were about fifty Turkish families. According to the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Temeşvar Eyalet, including Bečkerek, stayed under Ottoman rule, while bordering territories once again came under the Military Frontier. After the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 Bečkerek went under Habsburg rule.
Habsburg and Austrian period (1718–1914)
As a crown province, Banat belonged directly to the Vienna court. The first governor, appointed by the Emperor, was Count Claudius Mercy. By the imperial edict on 12 September 1718, Banat was divided into 13 districts, with the main administration in Timișoara at its head. The District of Banat included a few settlements: Idjoš, Arač, Bečej, Itebej, Elemir, Ečka and Aradac. The first chief of this district was Titus Vespanius Slucki. After the Turkish forces and Turks families had withdrawn, the land was left devastated without labour, which could till the soil and paid taxes. That's why the Austrian court tried to settle Banat as soon as possible.The colonization lasted from 1718–24, when the town was settled mostly by Germans, but the Serbs never stopped arriving. The military frontier in Potisje was displaced. In the following years Italians, Frenchmen, Romanians arrived and then the Catalans from Barcelona, who escaped the repression after the War of the Spanish Succession and settled in a place which is now the suburb of Dolja within Zrenjanin. The town was called New Barcelona. But the life was difficult in this marsh area with many contagious diseases, so many died and others left.
In the summer of 1738 there was the great plague. The Count Mersy wanted to turn marshes into fertile soil and he began to regulate the Begej River. In the middle and down course of the river a long canal was built, to make the river traffic possible between Bečkerek and Timișoara. On the first of November 1745 Sebastian Krazeisen began to make beer in the first brewery and that meant the first start of the industrialization. In the same year the first Serb's school was mentioned.
On 6 June 1769, Maria Theresa granted the Community of Great Bečkerek, the privilege of becoming the trading centre. By this privilege the whole social-economic life of the former Bečkerek was regulated and it got the status of the town. In 1769 the first hospital was built. In 1779, by the new organization of Torontál County, Bečkerek became its centre. The city was briefly restored to Ottoman administration from 1787 to 1788 during Austro-Turkish War.
During the 18th century it developed into thriving economic and cultural centre, but the great fire destroyed a large portion of the town in 1807. The town was soon rebuilt. The fire came from the brewery, on 30 August 1807. After the fire a new regulation of streets had been done, houses had been built from stronger materials, roads had been rebuilt. The river traffic was especially intensive. The theatre building with an attractively decorated hall was built in 1839. In 1846 the Grammar School was opened and in 1847 the first printing shop.
The 1848–49 Revolutions impacted Bečkerek. The Serbs revolted, aiming for autonomy within the Austrian Empire. At the May Assembly, the Serbian Vojvodina was proclaimed, including most of what is today Vojvodina. Serbs from Bečkerek participated in the uprising against Hungarian authority and from 26 January to 29 April 1849 the town was under Serb rebel control. In 1849, the town became part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar until 1860.
Although that time was known in history as a period of Bach's absolutism, the second part of the 19th century brought the town new developing benefits. New industrial facilities and handicraft stores were opened in every part of the town. Late 19th and early 20th century was progressive period for Veliki Bečkerek. Railway arrived in 1883, while post office was opened back in 1737.